Electronic Arts Inc

A start-up company called Tapulous has turned a simple game for the iPhone into an Internet-age mobile stage for musicians.

"Tap Tap Revenge," a free game that challenges players to keep up with catchy tunes by tapping in the right spots on the phone's screen, was available in Apple's iPhone application store when it opened in July.

It quickly climbed the store's charts. More than three million downloads later, Apple declared it the most popular free iPhone game of the year.

After much delay, Sony Computer Entertainment is opening its Home on Thursday. The Home virtual community, originally scheduled for a 2007 launch but hit with several delays, will be available to PlayStation 3 owners worldwide free of charge.

PS3 users will be able to download and install the Home software, create three-dimensional avatars to represent themselves in the community, and communicate with others. The company said the main activity will be creating friends as avatars visit virtual bowling alleys, arcades, game- and movie-related spaces, and homes.

The Khronos Group on Monday announced that its OpenCL 1.0 specification has been ratified and publicly released. Apple proposed the spec six months ago.

OpenCL (Open Computing Language) is the first open, royalty-free standard for cross-platform, parallel programming of modern processors found in personal computers, servers and handheld/embedded devices.

Electronic Arts wants to be part of the Wii magic for women interested in getting fit. The publisher of popular game series under its EA Sports label, including Madden, NASCAR and NBA Live, has developed EA Sports Active, a game exclusively for Nintendo's Wii game console. The game will be available in the spring.

During past downturns, layoffs were mostly a private affair. Big companies tended to issue vague news releases filled with jargon about "downsizing," and startups often gave people the pink slip without telling the world anything at all.

Not anymore. In the age of transparency, the layoff will be blogged.

Elon Musk, chief executive of the electric-car company Tesla Motors in San Carlos, California, said he had no choice other than to blog about the Oct. 15 layoffs at the company, even though some employees had not yet been told they were losing their jobs.

I didn't expect much from games on the iPhone. I had visions of casual games, perhaps a fancy take on solitaire or a version of poker that takes advantage of the handset's touchscreen. Surely not a true mobile gaming experience.